


Rivals

by Aarashi



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Basketball, Friendship, Frustration, Gen, Sports
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-12
Updated: 2019-04-12
Packaged: 2020-01-12 08:16:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18442619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aarashi/pseuds/Aarashi
Summary: “Don’t know, Kise. I just didn’t want to happen again.”





	Rivals

When April blossomed, they met again.

It looked like Kise had been waiting for it. He may be had, it would not be a surprise at all. He had let his hair grow again and now it lay on his forehead, smooth and shiny. He was still wearing an earring and his were the clothes of someone really invested in the fashion world, or at least that was what he transmitted. While he walked towards him, his golden eyes glinted.

“It’s been a while.” Kise smiled, his eyes shining with warmth. “Aominecchi.”

Aomine did not answer. He had not make a single gesture of recognizing since he had glimpsed Kise, the first second he had put a foot in the campus. He had not been waiting for him, but somehow it was as he had been ready for that moment. Or as if he had not at all. The eyes that were smiling at him were not the same he had seen the day they both had parted.

“Well,” Kise said, his voice slow, sickly-sweet. “Aren’t you gonna show me this place? It’s a nice day, after all. I hope I haven’t come here for nothing.”

Other students walked across the campus, immersed in their routine. Aomine left the wall.

“Tsk. Whatever. There is nothing to see.”

His voice sounded stronger than he had pretended, but Kise did not seem to notice. Aomine passed him at a slow pace, slovenly, hands in his pockets while his eyes slid over the campus. It was a beautiful place, in fact, and in mornings like that, when the sun shone in a completely clear sky, one could think about those other shiny past days.

Aomine felt Kise’s eyes wandering around, observing everything, feeling glances over them. Kise said nothing until they stopped and Aomine opened the door, which squeaked a bit. He had no idea why he had led Kise there, but, to be honest, he did not know other place where he felt comfortable.

Even though that gym still felt unknown.

Kise smiled and entered, his chin rising while he looked at the ceiling.

“Whoa, it’s beautiful, isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Aomine admitted. “Guess so.”

“I heard you quit after the first matches.”

“I did.”

“You get injured?”

“Yeah. Shoulder. But it was not because of that.”

“Then why.”

Aomine did not answer. Kise turned around to look at him. He was serious for the first time since they had met.

“You said it was alright,” he remembered him. “You were doing fine. Even Momocchi said so.”

Again, Aomine stayed silent. Kise’s eyes were starting to burn, to recover that spirit he had not seen since a while and he had missed so much. When he seemed about to explode, Aomine replied:

“I played in one more match.”

“And?”

“We lost.”

Suddenly the gym was too big for them.

“You were injured.” Kise’s voice was soft without sounding condescending. 

“Yeah, but we lost anyway. And I think… I know that we would have lost even though my shoulder was alright.” Aomine sighed and sat down. “Don’t know, Kise. I just didn’t want to happen again.”

He was not able to say it other way.

“Anyway…” He let out another deep sigh and he smiled lazily. “It looks like I don’t have to worry about it, don’t you think?”

Lie. It was a lie, and Kise knew it, and Aomine knew he did. That was a fear it would probably never disappear. He would have to deal with it, he would have to stand the panic rising in his chest whenever he saw a player walking by his side on the court, their face hidden while they did not try to chase the ball. He would have to deal with his demons after every match, when they came to drink the last drops of sweat and hope he felt with a good play.

“What about you?” Aomine asked after a while, looking at the ceiling. “Last thing I knew was that you were going to the finals. Did you kick some asses?”

“I hate losing.”

Aomine raised his head only to see Kise smiling, with that fierce smile that only showed in challenging matches, in the zone, in the one versus one they played against each other. There were tears in his golden eyes, but he did not seem to notice, or he did not mind.

“We were there, just a few meters before our goal. But we couldn’t reach it. And… the frustration I felt in that moment, the… the damned fire I felt burning in my chest, asking me to run, to get out on the court again and play like mad…” He breathed. “I can’t take it. And at the same time I love it, because some time ago I thought I’d never feel anything like that.”

A tear fell to the floor. Aomine said nothing. Kise approached him and looked him from above. His gaze was serene, even crying.

“I want you to be there. I want you to be the last scene, the last challenge, the last rival I have to surpass. I want to win and I want to defeat you. But only if you truly are yourself.”  
He extended his arm.

“You talk like you don’t know me.” Aomine took his hand and stood up, smiling like a sharp, blue eyes glimpsing. “I have never gone easy on you, and I will never go, you whiny idiot.”

His hand touched Kise’s face in a friendly gesture, shaking him without brusqueness, his fingers catching the last tears. Kise smiled and got away, pushing aside the hair from his eyes.

“Good to hear that, Aominecchi.”

There were many things untold behind that sweet voice and long eyelashes that shook with ease, behind that fierce smile and halfway closed eyes. There were fears and frustrations, there were beasts and monsters that awaited for the night to come. But in that gym that still felt unknown for both of them, under that ceiling that seemed too high for any of them to reach, there was something that they wanted to chase, something that maintained them stuck in a game that they never got tired of.

The sound of the ball fled the gym and for some minutes it was just them, in that eternal battle.

As long as they were rivals, they could stand for a bit longer.


End file.
